REMARKS ON INFLECTION. 15. THOUGH all the variety, force, beauty, and degrees of sentiment and feeling, which a good speaker or reader is able to throw into a composition, must depend on his knowledge of stress and force, and his skill in the correct application of these and other expressive elements of speech; still, when we consider that words, spoken either forcibly or feebly, in a manner indicating the most abrupt and startling emotions, or those of an opposite nature, must be pronounced sliding either upwards or downwards, or in a monotone; when we consider this, we shall find that the primary division of speaking sounds is into the upward and downward slides of the voice. Consequently, whatever diversity of tones and stress may be requisite to express the varied shades of feeling, the effect must depend on the right use of the inflections or slides of the voice. These may be considered as forming the outline of a correct and impressive delivery. 16. When a word is uttered with the rising inflection, the voice takes the same movement and direction that it does when we ask some startling question, commencing with an auxiliary or a verb; as, "Hark! did you not hear that dreadful noise?" And when a word is uttered on the downward inflection, the voice takes the same movement and direction that it naturally would in making a reply to the above question; as, "No; I did not." 17. In uttering questions constructed similarly to the one above, the pupil should begin with the same tone of voice which he would naturally use in speaking the words "one, two, three, four, five, six," continuously, as in the act of counting, and continue the tone to the terminating accentual word, when the voice must slide upwards a certain musical interval, varying from a third to a fifth, or to an octave, according to the intensity of the question. Let him repeat the terminating accentual word, and then other words, with the same upward slide, till he can determine whether the voice rises to a third, fifth, or an octave. 18. The following diagram is designed to show the movement of the voice in the upward and downward inflections: The acute accent (!) is used to denote the rising inflection. The grave accent (') is used to denote the falling inflection. The following are laid down as the principal rules on the subject of inflection: RULE I. 22. Every simple, declarative sentence requires the falling inflection at its close. EXAMPLES. Youth is the time for improvement. It is a dreary and chilly evening. There is a divinity which shapes our ends'. Through the thick gloom of the present I see the brightness of the future. It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth'. RULE II. 23. Negative sentences and negative members of sentences, when they do not conclude a paragraph, require the rising inflection. EXAMPLES. "Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother', Nor windy suspiration of forced breath', Nor the fruitful river of the eye, No, nor the dignified 'havior of the visage, Together with all forms, modes, and shows of grief', 24. "Tis not that heaven has thrown o'er the scene/ children. 25. I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness'. 26. He visited Europe, not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples'; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur; not to form a scale of the curiosities of modern art/; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts/; but to dive into the depths of dungeons, to plunge into the infections of hospitals, to remember the forgotten', to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries. RULE III. 27. In negative sentences, the negative particle generally receives the falling inflection, and the thing denied the rising inflection. EXAMPLES. The quality of mercy is not strained'. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 28. It is not grief that bids me moan; It is that I am all alone. 29. It is not with finite beings, like ourselves, that we hold intercourse. 30. It is not on account of the serpent/ that I boast myself a greater benefactor to Greece than you. 31. From the beginning it was not so. 32. REMARKS. In reference to the last two examples, it may be well to notice, first, that the thing denied is, "on account of the serpent." By transposition, the sentence will read as follows: "I boast myself a greater benefactor to Greece than you, but it is not on account of the serpent' that I do so." 33. In the second place, it may be well to notice, that the thing denied is, "From the beginning." The meaning intended to be conveyed by the sentence is, not that the circumstance, condition, or state of things which the word "it" represents, was not so at all; only that it was not so at "the beginning," although it had become so afterwards. The sentence may be thus arranged: "It was not so from the beginning'." It must, however, be admitted, that, by this arrangement, the expression will lose much of its vivacity. RULE IV. 34. A concession should end with the rising inflection. EXAMPLES. Music is certainly a very agreeable entertainment; but it must not take the entire possession of our hearts. 35. I am well convinced, that, by adhering to these sentiments, I shall lose the good opinion of the public; yet I am determined to abide by them, as I consider them founded on principles of truth. 36. Reason, eloquence, and every art which has been studied by mankind, may be greatly abused', and may prove dangerous in the hands of bad men; but it were perfectly childish to contend, that, upon this account alone, they ought to be abolished. 37. No doubt, at the table of boisterous intemperance, Religion, if she were admitted as a guest, would wear a very dull countenance. It is indeed true, that the existence of a future state is not to us as certain as the existence of the present; neither can we ever have that intuitive assurance of the being of a God, that we necessarily possess of our own existence; neither can the facts of the gospel history, which happened two thousand years ago, be impressed on our minds with that undoubting/ conviction which we have of the reality of scenes which are passing immediately before our eyes. RULE V. 38. When words or clauses form antitheses, the opposite parts must have opposite inflections. The first word or member of the antithesis, should have |